Carlos Galvan
12/21/2020 19:09
Clarín.com
Politics
Updated 12/21/2020 7:09 PM
To prevent the legal abortion project from being unexpectedly blocked in the Senate, "green" deputies and senators
worked in a mirror
and agreed on the final wording of the initiative.
The scheme, similar to the one used to treat, for example, Budget laws, was designed to prevent changes to the initiative in the upper house, which would force its return to deputies to be voted on again.
The plan
had an original flaw
that was exposed at the last minute:
not all
the "green" senators
were consulted
if they agreed with what Deputies were going to discuss.
This was the case, for example, of Alberto Weretilneck from Rio Negro, an ally of the ruling party and who has a public position in favor of the voluntary interruption of pregnancy.
"Nobody asked me anything,"
the senator from Río Negro was heard saying privately.
"They discounted that he was green and that he would support any project,
but it is not like that," they
confided near Weretilneck.
Alberto Weretilneck, former governor of Río Negro.
Beyond the invoice passes about who forgot to consult it, the concrete thing is that the former Rio Negro governor demands a series of changes in the project.
I would only vote for the law if those tweaks materialize.
-And if not, I will abstain, he
warned his collaborators on Monday.
The Senate vote scheduled for Tuesday 29 appears in numbers so even that Weretilneck's resignation could
sink
the approval of the legal abortion bill.
A simple abstention can be the trump card for the "celestial".
"It is better that the project returns to the deputies than that the law does not go directly out,
" they stressed near Weretilneck.
The changes requested by the Rio Negro are substantial.
The Government informed him that his requests could be resolved in the regulation of the law, in the event that it was sanctioned.
But for the senator
that route is not viable.
"For me, the regulations cannot alter the spirit or letter of the project, I think the solution is to modify the project," Weretilneck told his interlocutors.
Among what is requested is a limitation until the 22nd week of gestation for the voluntary interruption of pregnancy to a raped person over 13 years of age.
The half sanction does not set deadlines.
The other point objected by the senator is that in the half sanction of Deputies legal abortion is allowed after week 14 in case the life or integral health of the pregnant person is in danger.
For Weretilneck that wording is
too broad
.
It proposes to specify that the practice may be carried out after week 14 "if the fetus has a congenital malformation that is incompatible with life";
"If the pregnancy is the result of a rape of a person under 13 years of age";
and "in any case, when there is a serious danger to the life or physical health of the pregnant person and this danger cannot be avoided by any other means."
Alberto Fernández himself had to be personally involved in the negotiations in the Senate due to the steepness of the vote for the Government.
The project was sent by the Executive Power and it was a campaign promise of the ruling party.
An eventual defeat in the upper house would be a very hard blow for the Casa Rosada.
Alberto Fernández, last week with Salta senator Sergio Leavy
Last week, the President received the Salta senator Sergio “Oso” Leavy, who was counted as “blue” and now according to rumors he would accompany the project.
With Weretilneck until now Fernández did not communicate.
Look also
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Abortion: Alberto Fernández gets involved in the fight to add votes in the Senate in favor of the law
